


Courage Versus Worms

by PonderingWriter (Tziput13)



Category: Courage the Cowardly Dog, Worms (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crossover, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-08
Updated: 2014-03-25
Packaged: 2018-03-15 09:13:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3441623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tziput13/pseuds/PonderingWriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A strange battle with weird combatants takes place in Nowhere, and the Bagges accidentally get involved. Courage will have to learn to play the same game of the invertebrates before he has any chance to save Muriel and Eustace.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Strike

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published on Fanfiction.net on December 8th, 2013, and finished on March 25st, 2014.  
> Added to the Archive on Feubrary 26th, 2015.
> 
> 27/04/2017: Re-edited. Fixed grammar and syntax errors, punctuation made coherent and correct, redone the note at the end, other minor changes. The fanfiction mostly remains the same as it was when it was first published.

It was a day like others in Nowhere. Courage was peacefully sleeping on Muriel's rocking chair. Muriel herself was working in the kitchen, while Eustace was reading the newspaper. Nobody was paying attention to the TV, which was on.

After some commercials, a film was aired. It was a war movie, and not much time passed before the scene got into action. When the cannon of a battleship fired in the TV, Courage was abruptly woken up, and he made a big jump, crashing into the living room's ceiling. Eustace started to laugh at the pink dog.

"Ah ah, stupid dog! You can't even watch a simple movie without being scared?"

Muriel, having heard Courage's crash, had got in the room. "Eustace! You shouldn't bother Courage because he doesn't love to watch those movies like you do!" She took the remote from Eustace's hands and turned off the TV.

"But Muriel!" complained Eustace, "it's just a movie! What about watching some great action, big battles and epic stories?"

"Do I have to remind you that these films are based on real events, where people battled themselves? Do you like this?" replied Muriel.

They started to argue about films based on wars. Courage was still stuck in the ceiling, and he spent two minutes to exit the hole and fall on the floor. The dog watched his two owners, and he decided to not participate in the discussion, also because he was still a bit stunned by the sudden awakening.

He went upstairs. He was going to the attic, as he wanted to use his computer. While he was on the stairs, Courage heard a strange, loud noise coming from outside.

Then, a powerful quake made the ground tremble violently. Courage lost his balance and fell, almost hitting every step of the stairs. He stopped at the first floor of the farmhouse. Courage stood up, frightened, but the quake had already passed away.

He ran into the living room, where Muriel and Eustace were as surprised as he was.

"Courage! Are you all right?" asked Muriel, worried.

Courage went to her and gave her a hug. Eustace grumbled something, annoyed. He watched through the window outside.

"Stupid kids, playing with firecrackers..." moaned Eustace. Then, he sat on the armchair and resumed to read the newspaper, as nothing had happened. Muriel watched him oddly.

Courage went to the window, too, in order to see what was going on. He was stunned by the sight of a big mushroom-like cloud far away. Surely, the cloud had been created by the same explosion that caused the quake.

"Courage, what could have happened?" asked Muriel, right at his side. Courage shook his head as to say, "I don't know..."

"You should really go there and see if somebody needs help, Courage!" said Muriel.

Courage thought that it wasn't a good idea to go in the place where there had just been an explosion, but Muriel was insistent. Eventually, he had to accept, and reluctantly he left the farm and headed for the location of the event. "Be careful, Courage!" said Muriel while he was going away.

The more Courage moved nearer to his destination, the more the desert became less sandy and more rocky. In fact, Courage reached a place where huge rocks, stones and various formations were everywhere. There were also dry bushes and some saguaros.

The dog entered a sort of rocky valley, closed by its two sides. At the end of the valley it was visible the crater of the explosion which blocked the other exit and prevented any attempt to leave the place. When Courage reached the crater, he gave a quick look to his surroundings.

Apart from him, there was no sign of anything suspicious or interesting in the area. Courage tried to think of something to say to Muriel: perhaps a government fighter had tested some type of bomb there? In fact, it wasn't the first time that Courage had to do with the military. In any case, he gave a sigh of relief at the fact that no further hazards were going to happen.

He turned with the purpose of going home, but he gave a scream of surprise when he saw a weird tombstone he had not noticed before. The fact was that this tombstone was animated! It was like it was dancing.

Courage was frightened, but it was just the beginning. A unknown voice called him from behind.

"Hey! Hey, you, doggy! Come here!" The voice was whispering, as the speaker didn't want to be heard by anyone other than Courage.

Courage slowly moved towards the big rock where the voice was coming from. He was shuddering. Suddenly, the speaker revealed himself from his hiding place behind the rock.

Courage tried his best to keep his mouth closed.

In front of Courage there was a worm. It wasn't like the ones you find on the ground on wet days. Instead, he had a humanoid big face, with huge eyes and a large mouth compared to his body. His hands were separated by his body, and he didn't wear any type of cloth. Of course, he had no legs, he was able to move by crawling. He was only a little taller than Courage. He raised his eyebrows when he saw how much scared was Courage.

"Little dog, I know I'm perhaps odd to you, but I'm not a monster. Still, we don't have time to talk about this... You must get out of here!" said the worm.

Courage scratched his head. "What's happening here? Who are you?" he asked.

"I am Douglas, and I have just told you that we don't have enough time to talk... you are making _them_ discover us too early! Go away if you want to survive, get it?!" The worm was already starting to get angry.

Courage decided to follow the worm's advice. It was the first time that someone suggested him to go away from a dangerous situation. Still, Courage didn't know that the worm had warned him too late.

Courage noticed something going towards him. It was a rocket. The dog screamed and took cover behind a large stone just before the rocket blew up on the ground.

Courage heard at the same time Douglas, the worm who had talked with him, and another, different voice shout an order: "FIREEEEEEE!" Then, it all became a pandemonium.

The poor dog stared at a huge battle raging on around him. All types of rockets, grenades and explosives were being shot and thrown by the two sides of the valley. It didn't pass much time before the stone which was protecting him was blown up by a rocket.

Courage started to run as fast as he could, trying to evade all the shots which were falling around him.

At the top of the two sides, Courage was able to see various worms, which were just like Douglas was. On the left side, the dog could barely see that the worms were wearing military helmets, while on the right side the worms were naked.

It seemed to Courage that the two teams were fighting to the death. He had to do his best to escape various wrong-shot rockets and failed-thrown grenades, but some of the worms were really trying to hit Courage, maybe because they believed he was an enemy.

Courage screamed when a shot coming from a shotgun missed him and almost destroyed his small tail. When he saw that even helicopters and bombers, coming from unknown places (they weren't of the military of course) were beginning to arrive and bomb all the place, Courage made a last rush to the only exit of the valley.

Finally the dog reached the exit to the valley and ran away from the battle. The worms luckily didn't care of him, they were too busy fighting themselves, and Courage could stop after a while to breath and regain.

The dog watched the battle going on from his safe position. He could see flying worms screaming, thrown away by blasts. Courage scratched his eyes when he saw something like a pigeon flying above the battlefield, but when he opened them all he could see was another big explosion.

Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, all stopped. Courage was so bewildered that he fell on the ground and stayed there, watching the rocky valley (or at least, what remained of it). The worms seemed to have disappeared, but Courage could see some of them leaving the rocks and going away in the desert.

Courage's head was full of questions. Who the heck were those strange guys? Why did they do battles so large between themselves? And where did they come from? Courage believed to have seen everything, but Nowhere was still able to surprise, and scare, him.

The place was very quite now, but Courage remembered how much quiet was the valley before the clash started, so he decided to return to his house quickly. He walked away from the place, heading for home.

When Courage reached the farmhouse, Muriel ran to him "Courage!" she called, "What happened? I heard something like a war! Are you fine? I'm so sorry I asked you to go there!" She gave him a hug, pleased to see him alive. Courage relaxed himself for a moment, but when Muriel carried him in the living room he remembered the last events.

When Muriel let him away, he tried his best to tell her and Eustace that there were worm soldiers battling for some reason in the surroundings. He even transformed himself into a worm just like Douglas and shot a bazooka at a imaginary target, to show them what he was talking about.

Unfortunately, both Muriel and Eustace didn't understand a single word from Courage. To make things worse, the rocket of the bazooka exploded on Eustace's face. Only the presence of Muriel prevented him from getting very angry. "Aaagh... stupid dog... Darn kids, I hate them," said Eustace while sitting on the sofa, then he started another time to read the newspaper like every day.

"Oh, Courage, don't listen to Eustace. I'm sure you need some rest, you look really scared" said Muriel. She patted Courage's head.

The day was already going to finish. Some minutes before dinner, Courage was in the attic, in front of his computer. He had decided to search for information about those worms. He couldn't know if they were gone... or not.

"Crawling soldiers fighting with missile launchers? Did you perhaps drink alcohol yesterday evening?" asked the Computer's voice, sarcastically. Courage had not much patience to joke with him, so he answered him angrily.

"Ok, ok, don't be mad..." said the Computer. After some time, a sound was emitted.

"I found something. It looks like that in 1995 there were the first sights of these worms you were talking to. Of course, nobody trusted the viewers... some of them were also taken to asylums." Courage felt his backbone tremble. Something like a little laugh was emitted, but before Courage could complain, the Computer continued to talk.

"Anyway, the events where the battles were seen continued to happen, until five years ago. Do you want that I insert your name and story in the list?"

Courage typed instead his request to have more information about the worms.

"There isn't much information in this file. Witnesses state that the worms use various types of weapons, most of which are weird. A witness that seemed to have talked with them said that they battle for a specific reason. However, he couldn't say what the reason was, precisely. Mankind always surprise me... They have much fantasy, haven't they?"

Courage was no more listening to his computer. What could have brought the worms to battle another time, after five years of peace? And why in Nowhere? Courage was frightened by their battles, which he had experienced could be very dangerous for witnesses.

The pink dog went to the window in the attic and watched outside. He could still see the greater rocks from the formation where the battle had taken place in the afternoon. It was still quiet.

Courage was called by Muriel for dinner. When he arrived in the kitchen, he saw that Muriel was happy and Eustace was angry, like every day. It was like nothing had happened in the previous hours. Courage couldn't do anything apart from eating his food. He hoped that the worms had gone away from Nowhere, bringing their battles with them.

Courage couldn't of course know that he was wrong.


	2. Night Encounter

It was late in the night. Eustace and Muriel were already sleeping in their bedroom, while Courage was still awake on the bed. He was still thinking about the events of the previous day, and he was too nervous to sleep properly.

He decided to go to the bathroom with the purpose to wash his face. Courage got out of the Bagge's bedroom, but could do only a step out before he heard a noise coming from outside.

The noise was barely audible, but for Courage's canine ears it was like the noise was emitted in front of him. It was something like a small rock being hit by something, and the pink dog knew that there were some stones around his house.

Courage was frightened. Trembling, he went to the window in the hallway and watched outside. No one was out there, at least in that side of the house. Courage tried to not think that there were three more sides of the house where hypothetical monsters could hide in, and wondered if it was a good idea to simply forget the noise and return to sleep.

An image came into Courage's mind to answer him. He thought of the farmhouse, with Muriel inside, being bombed by bazooka shots until total destruction. The thought was so horrible that Courage had to calm himself down to prevent an heart attack.

When he was done, Courage realized that he had to control entirely the surroundings, to protect Muriel. He was almost sure that the worms were the cause of the noise. What did they want from him?

Courage quietly went down the stairs. Without making any sound, he approached the main door. He silently opened it.

The dog closed his eyes, rotated his head shuddering and struggled to open them to watch to the left side. He gave a sigh of relief when he saw that there was nothing suspicious in that part. Courage was so pleased that he totally forgot his previous efforts to be stealth and simply watched the right side. The consequence was Courage giving out a loud, sudden scream, jumping with fear.

The dog immediately returned inside and slammed the door behind him.

 _Three worms._ Just out there.

Courage was surprised by the fact that he'd recognized Douglas, the one who had tried to warn him in the valley, in one of them. The worms looked identical to each other, and there was no physical difference apart from their voices. Anyway, this wasn't the thing Courage was most concerned with by now. He was hidden behind Eustace's sofa, ready for the worst.

"Hey, dog?" called Douglas from outside. "We don't want to harm anyone. Just let us inside, we have to talk with you at once."

Despite the friendly tone of Douglas, Courage wasn't trusting him completely. He could only say, "Go 'way..."

"Can't we simply blow up the door?" asked a second voice. Courage held another scream of fright.

"Agent Dennis, your ideas caused us to fail hundreds of battles, so please could you just SHUT UP?!" Douglas was indeed upset by Agent Dennis' idea.

Then, a third voice started to talk directly with Courage. "Listen dog," said the third worm behind the door, "we have to talk to you before things get serious... as if, _very_ _serious. S_ o, would you please open the door and prevent us from bursting into your house with or without your permission?"

The worm had a point, and Courage feared what the worm meant with _'very serious'.._. judging by the annelid's tone, it wasn't something good. In the end, he had to leave his hiding place and open the door to his three new guests.

At half past eleven PM Courage was in the living room, now with lights on, staring at the three worms, who were returning his gaze.

An idea suddenly came to Courage's mind. Muriel! Courage wondered if she had woken up because of his previous shriek, but no sounds were coming from the upper floor apart from Eustace's loud snoring. Courage thought that perhaps they were really tired, probably for the events that had occurred the previous day.

"Yes, they won't disturb us... for now," said Douglas, who had noticed Courage watching the ceiling. Courage returned to pay his attention to the worm. "Now, I'm sorry to tell you this dog, but you must go away from there. You and your family. _Now."_

Courage was taken aback by that request. "WHAT?" he almost shouted, surprised. "Are you mad?"

"No, we are worms," answered the third worm sarcastically, the one whose name wasn't known yet by Courage. "Now listen, doggy. Here is the situation: outside there is an entire team of worms, our enemies, that are moving towards this house. On the other side, there is the rest of our team, who is waiting for us. We are going to face the Bacabe exactly in this area, so if you don't want to explode you will definitely have to escape from this place."

Courage heart sank. His previous thought had predicted what was going to happen that night.

"It is exactly as Boggy Pete has told you, dog," said Douglas, "if you and those two old persons up there want to survive, you should get out of there as soon as you can."

Courage couldn't believe them. "But there must be another solution... I mean, you can't simply tell us to..." He started to say, but he was interrupted. A grenade thrown by someone outside suddenly entered the living room.

"TAKE COVER!" shouted Douglas. Courage and the three worms tried to protect themselves as fast as they could from the bomb. Within two seconds, the grenade exploded.

Of course, if Courage's scream wasn't enough to awake Muriel and Eustace, a blast of a grenade which made the entire house tremble violently was indeed enough to abruptly woke them up.

"What's that stupid dog doing?" said Eustace angrily.

"Eustace, I don't think that it was Courage. We better go check out what is going on." said Muriel. Then, another explosion caused another quake that passed through the entire house.

At the lower floor, there was a full-on war going on. Douglas, Boggy Pete and Agent Dennis were at the windows of the kitchen and the living room, shooting and battling a group of helmet-headed worms. But outside the battle had a much larger scale, with a line composed by Douglas' team which contained the Bagges' farmhouse which was facing the Bacabe's one. With a unknown manner, the worms of both the factions had built simple covers for themselves, which were obviously needed in an almost complete desert. There were loud noises coming from everywhere, explosions, shots, animal calls, old women's shouts.

And Courage was hidden in the basement, watching the battle. He was behind the door, which was opened enough to let him watch the kitchen. Courage could only see Agent Dennis under the window shooting outside with his shotgun, but the various sounds of the battle, including Douglas insults at his enemies, made him realize that the clash was bigger than he expected. Of course, Courage gave a scream at every bomb or missile that seemed to hit his position and ran out of the door. Every time he returned to the exit of the basement to continue to search for a way to escape. "When is this nightmare ending?" he thought, shuddering. The entire wall that was covering Agent Dennis and his two mates inside the house was _disappearing_ , annihilated shot by shot.

Muriel and Eustace screamed when they saw what was going on through the bedroom's window. They ran out and decided that the attic was the safest zone available at the moment.

The battle lasted for about 5 minutes without any big events. Courage was considering if trying to get upstairs to find Muriel when Agent Dennis watched outside for a moment to clarify the enemies' position. Courage watched his face turn almost as frightened as his own for second.

"Oh, for the love of... DOUGLAS, PETE, GET THE HECK OUT OF HERE, SHEEEEEEEP!" shouted Agent Dennis with all his might, and the worm just flashed out as fast as he could, crawling out of the room.

Courage was bewildered. What? A sheep? Was Agent Dennis scared of a sheep?

The sheep in question was going to answer Courage directly. The little, pretty animal jumped into the house, unaware of all the inferno around it. Courage watched it for some seconds, surprised. The sheep landed on the kitchen's floor and right away jumped another time. The animal launched a tiny, cute 'Baa!'.

Then, it detonated.

The blast was so strong that the basement's door was torn out. The door was thrown away against the wall bringing with it a screaming Courage, and the poor dog was squashed between them. The last thing that the dog could hear before he passed out was Boggy Pete shouting: "RETREAT!"

The sheep attack ended the battle. Douglas', Boggy Pete, Agent Dennis and their allies quickly left the area. The victory had indeed been achieved by the Bacabe.

When the battles' sound disappeared, Muriel and Eustace had to wait two minutes before they could actually stand up and leave their position in the corner of the attic.

"What happened?!" said Muriel, still shuddering. Eustace grumbled something, angry and frightened at the same time. "I hope Courage is okay," said Muriel, "we should go down there and look for him, Eustace!"

"Mmrgrm... All right," Eustace muttered in response. He was more worried about the house and his precious TV, but he knew that stating his thoughts wouldn't have been the best idea at the moment.

They left the attic and went down two levels of stairs, reaching the living room. When they saw what had happened to their house, they were astonished.

The wall on the side where the TV used to be had been completely obliterated, and the kitchen was no more existing at all. The house was creaking loudly: perhaps the upper part was near to fall down on the damaged side.

Outside it looked like the moon's surface. Strangely, the barn and the windmill had been spared by the fury of the battle. However, the chicken coop wasn't so luck and was no more a part of the area.

"Oh my..." said Muriel. Suddenly, her thought came to her dog. "Courage!" she called, "Where are you?"

Eustace instead was annoyed by the fact that the TV became a victim of the clash. When he heard Muriel calling Courage, he said, "Humph, that stupid dog, it has surely something to do with all this mess. If I find him, I will..." "FREEZE!"

Eustace stopped talking and both him and Muriel stayed motionless, their hands raised. They heard something crawl behind them, then unknown hands searched them, as to control if they had weapons.

When the controller was done, someone said to them, "Well, you won't be harmful for us. You can turn if you want now."

Muriel and Eustace turned and were surprised to find themselves facing with a large group of worms. To the two humans, the worms were just as tall as kids, but they were still nervous to see various rifles and bazookas pointed at them. They wore each a military helmet and a pair of brown gloves.

"Huh? Earth worms in my house? What are you doing here?" said Eustace, "Bah... I don't care, I will just get rid of you. Muriel, I'm taking my mallet," and he turned in the direction of the stairs. He was stopped by one of the worms, a determined look on his face, who aimed his shotgun just in front of Eustace's chin. The farmer was enough intelligent to understand that he'd better stay calm. "Don't do sudden actions and maybe you won't be shot in the head..." said the rifleman.

"Very well," said another one of the worms, with a deep, strong voice, "let me introduce ourselves. My name's Fab, and these are my mates, members of the same team, the Bacabe. Now, my question is: what are you two doing there, in our battle area?" The worm wasn't angry, but his tone wasn't friendly at all.

"Excuse me, Mr. Fab" said Muriel politely "but I would say that _we_ should ask you what are you doing here. We have lived here for various years, and..."

"Impossible," interrupted Fab, no trace of emotion on his face, "Our orders are clear and there can't be errors. Anyway, we encountered them, so..."

"Encountered who? What are you talking about, you stupid insect?" said Eustace rudely.

A 'click' was heard as the rifleman who was still threatening Eustace charged his shotgun, ready to fire. "Wrong, old man. Not insects, we are annelids," he said with a grin.

"I agree, Def," said Fab with his emotionless manner, "but indeed, I cannot trust your words completely. For me, you can even be spies... although I have never seen teams using spies. Anyway, there is always a first, so I'm afraid that you two will have to come with us."

"This is not polite!" said Muriel.

"Log98, Def! Take these two old humans to the base. I want them guarded every hour. If they try to attempt an escape... You are authorized to blow up them." Def laughed at the order, while the worm who seemed to be Log98 turned suddenly and nodded fast, like he feared his boss.

"Andy, Cab! Follow me. The rest of you, search the area and count the tombstones. I want to know the exact number of the worms who have fallen."

The team fractured and every one of the worms followed Fab's directives. Muriel and Eustace were forced to leave the house, towards somewhere in the Kansas desert.


	3. This is Us

Courage was recovering from the head hit. His leg was blocked by the door that used to link the kitchen and the basement. The dog tried to lift it with all his might despite the headache

Courage was beginning to succeed in his attempt when he heard some sounds. _Crawling_ sounds. The dog immediately stopped and hid behind the door. Two worms entered the basement and began to search the area. They wore helmets, and Courage didn't know if they were his enemies or not. The dog was shuddering and just before one of them was going to control under the destroyed door, a voice called from above, "Stop your business, we're leaving!" Courage saw from his hiding place, through the door's keyhole, the worm considering whether he should control the door as a last task or not, but luckily the annelid changed idea and followed his mate upstairs.

Courage gave a sigh of relief, but didn't attempt another time to free his leg before the sounds of the worms went silent for good.

When he thought he was safe, the pink dog managed to lift the door enough to let his leg away. Courage stood for a moment, as the headache returned into his head. It was in this moment that a buzzing thought went through his mind.

"Muriel!" he shouted. The dog quickly ran upstairs, and for a moment stared at the remains of the kitchen as his masters did minutes before. The light in the basement was the only one that was still working. Then, he started to call Muriel, and even Eustace some times, while he moved around the house. He looked for them everywhere: the living room, the attic, their bedroom and the bathroom, without caring of the loud cracking noises that his movements caused in the half-destroyed building.

In the end, Courage exited the house from its main entrance. He made a last, loud call for Muriel, towards the deep desert. No one answered him, except for the farmhouse which at last collapsed and bent his upper part of 45 degrees on the damaged side.

Courage was of course scared by that unexpected event, but he was too concerned about Muriel to care about it that much. "Where are you...?" said Courage, with a little tear on his eye. Did the worms take them? But why? Courage couldn't think of any possible reason. He sat on the ground moaning to himself in the night.

Then, the cavalry arrived. Courage raised his muzzle to watch what or who was coming towards him. The more they got nearer, the more Courage could see of them.

It was a small group of worms. They were of Douglas' team as Courage recognized them for not wearing the green helmets. However, Courage stayed motionless, without standing up to wave at them.

The worms, four in number, reached him. One of them patted Courage on the head.

The dog watched the worm and realized he was Boggy Pete. Another time Courage was stunned by the fact he could distinguish the worm by his three companions without hearing their voices. In fact, they were physically identical.

"So, dog... I'm sorry for your house, but we couldn't..." started to say Boggy Pete, but Courage stopped him. "Did you take my family?" he asked, holding a growl.

"Huh? What are you talking about, little pink animal? We didn't take anyone. We..." the worm who was speaking was hushed by Boggy Pete. They watched themselves: "Oh, no..." said the worm.

Boggy Pete returned to pay his attention to Courage: "I can only say I'm not happy about you going into all this mess. Trust me, we had no choice..."

" _No choice?_ Now explain me why should I trust you. You destroyed my house. You and the others up there..." Courage pointed nervously the opposite side of the desert with his paw, "...who also kidnapped my family for no apparent reason, and I don't even know if they're alive. Why in the world should I trust you?" He was almost shouting.

"Wrong, dog," said Boggy Pete coldly, forgetting his previous efforts to be delicate, "your masters were kidnapped for a reason, because if not they would be there lying on the ground. It is almost lucky that they eventually took them instead of get rid of them." Courage was trying to not pass out for the second time in front of them.

At this moment, the worm who spoke previously turned to him: "We don't know how they are by now, dog, and I'm sorry... However, we came here to meet a squad of the other team, with the purpose to decree the winner and confirm the next battle location. We're probably going to talk about them... You can join to listen our discussion if you want."

Courage watched gratefully the worm who offered his help to him. He would have accepted everything to save Muriel from those war demons. Boggy Pete was almost annoyed... but at last he said, "Well, looks like Mc Hood is going to be the diplomat here. We will see how you will act with _them,_ " Mc Hood trembled for a second at Boggy Pete's words, but he smiled at Courage as to say, " _Don't worry, He agrees."_

The four worms and Courage waited near the ruins of the farmhouse for the other group of worms. After some minutes, Boggy Pete said: "One thing, dog. We really had _no choice_. I don't know if you will come to know why, but rest assured I'm not lying." Courage wanted to apologize for his previous outburst, but Boggy Pete wasn't even watching him. They stayed silent until some black points where visible in the far desert.

"Here they come..." said one of the worms.

"Do not do any imprudent actions, dog," said Mc Hood. "Normally we wouldn't pay much attention to diplomacy but this time we have to be careful." Courage nodded at the order, though he didn't know if he could obey it.

Four military helmets approached Mc Hood and Boggy Pete's group and didn't stop until they were face by face.

"Very, very, well..." said one of the worms. "For how much time have the Destroyers started to use spies?"

"I don't know what are you talking about, Def," said Boggy Pete without any sign of fright on his voice, unlike Mc Hood who was shuddering.

"You know what he's talking about, Pete..." said another one of the worms. He watched Courage deeply, and the dog felt a shiver move through his body. "... and that animal is the evidence."

Boggy Pete was not impressed by the worm's notice. "This dog has nothing to do with us. Neither do his masters. We don't use spies... And you know it, Fab."

"Then," said Def, "can we just annihilate them, Fab?" Def would have laughed if we weren't taken aback by Courage's loud scream. Mc Hood and another Destroyer had to hold him and calm him down.

"Keep that stupid dog quiet!" said Def.

"There is no need continue this talk anymore..." said Mc Hood while still holding Courage. "You won, and the next battle will take place in the mountains over there..." he pointed to some small contraptions far away, "... is that all?"

Nobody answered the call... Except for Fab.

"I have an idea to make things... a bit more interesting. You aren't concerned about these two old humans, but this dog indeed is, and if he is with you you can't be totally uninterested by them. So, how about a deal?" Fab raised his hand and offered it to Boggy Pete, "If you win the battle tomorrow, we will give you back the two humans. If you lose, we will do to them what we want..." Fab emotionless tone was weird, but Def's laughs were there to make Courage fear for Muriel. "...then?" he asked.

Boggy Pete watched his enemy in the eyes. Then, he shook hands with him: "Fine," he said. Afterwards, they both said something that looked like a ritual. "The Destroyers declare their loss..." said Boggy Pete, and Fab finished "...and the Bacabe declare their victory". For Courage, it was surely a strange diplomatic method.

"Seeing you tomorrow!" said Def with a strange smile.

"Whatever..." answered Boggy Pete. Both the groups left with no other words, heading for opposite directions.

Courage didn't know what to do at first. He glanced at his house, or what was left of it, then he watched the naked ones going away. He decided to follow them, and the dog ran until he reached the group. Nobody told him to go away.

"I think that the others won't agree with your decision, farmer," said Mc Hood. Courage didn't know who he was talking to until Boggy Pete answered, "Perhaps... or perhaps they will, as it doesn't change a thing for us." Despite his cold voice, Courage was glad that he had accepted Fab's offer. It was his only hope at the moment.

"For a moment, dog, I thought you were going after those guys," said Mc Hood to Courage. "Good heavens you didn't decide to do so. You will see how much a worm base is well defended. Your chances to free your masters alone are... minimal to be honest." Courage was frightened at the thought of what kind of weapons could be used by the worms in their 'house'.

They walked (or crawled) for about 10 minutes in the desert around Nowhere. Courage lost both the sights of his house and of the road in front of it, and at the same time started to see something in the horizon.

They reached the Destroyers' (eventually this was the name of Mc Hood and Boggy Pete's team) fort. Courage was stunned by its appearance. It was big, with various lines of towers as to defend the centre. The more you were near to the centre, the bigger the towers were. Various guards were standing on the peaks of the buildings, and moved themselves with quick jumps Courage wouldn't have thought them capable of. One of them waved at Boggy Pete when he saw him. Some others were preparing weapons on wooden platforms. For example, there was one worm which was loading a mortar with... a priest? Courage thought he was dreaming. He watched carefully this time, but the worm had already loaded the mortar and the dog couldn't see the bullet inside.

There was no type of cage in the perimeter; in fact, the walls that linked the buildings were so low that Courage could simply jump over them to enter base. Courage wondered what was the wall's function, as they appeared to be a bit useless.

The group passed through the area, wall by wall, until meeting up with another group of worms just in front of the building located at the exact centre of the base. He noted that it was huge, larger than any other construction in the base. It seemed to be important. Courage recognized Agent Dennis and Douglas in two the worms, another time without knowing how he could do that.

"... So?" asked Douglas, curios to know the results of the meeting.

"Well, it hasn't been much different from previous ones, but there is a little thing that indeed has..." said Mc Hood. He explained to them what was said. Other worms gathered around him to know about the future.

When he finished, all the worms watched Courage. The dog stayed silent, as he didn't know what to say.

Douglas approached him and patted him on the head with his flying weird hand. He tried to comfort him: "Tomorrow we will fight like any other day, Courage. To win at all costs. I cannot be sure that we will beat the Bacabe, but we will do everything in our power to do so," he said.

Agent Dennis was whispering with another worm. Courage heard him thanks to his canine hearing: "We don't win a battle from... how much time? One month? Two? I don't even remember. Freeman, I doubt that we will start to win exactly tomorrow. I'm afraid that the dog's masters are doomed..." Courage felt like a stone had hit him directly in the stomach.

Most of the worms had returned to their positions, and now Courage was alone with Boggy Pete, Agent Dennis, Douglas and Mc Hood. The dog had hundreds of questions, but one suddenly came to his mind. Douglas had called him by his name... But he had never said his name to them!

"Hey, how did you come to know of my name? I have never told you!" asked Courage, surprised.

"Well, how can you distinguish me from my mates, apart from our voices?" asked Douglas. Courage stayed silent, surprised at his intuition. "The reason is the same. We don't know how exactly it works, but it seems we have some kind of unnatural power inside us..." said Douglas.

"I can sense you want to know about us..." said Mc Hood. Courage nodded.

"Well, I think you deserve some type of explanation after all the mess you came in," said Douglas.

"Yes, yes... I'm leaving, Douglas..." said Agent Dennis and he went away. Boggy Pete gave a quick gaze to Courage, then he followed his mate.

"Don't think they are bad, Courage" said Douglas, "Boggy Pete is as polite as a bear and Agent Dennis behaviour is surely questionable, but they are good soldiers and faithful team mates."

Courage was going to start with the most important question: "Why do you battle others of your kind?"

Douglas and Mc Hood watched themselves. The second one answered him, "We would like to have an answer to that question too, pink dog, but we haven't. We don't of course battle randomly... We have orders. But before you ask who is the boss, I'll tell you that we don't know him, we don't even know if he exists either. The next moves, the places, the teams we have to face, they all come to our mind battle after battle. And we can't just disobey them... It is in our blood, or something similar, I don't really know. We _have_ to do it."

"You sound like a philosopher. Strange for a Scottish annelid," commented Douglas. Mc Hood glanced at him, and Douglas continued his speech: "You should know that the building in the centre..." he pointed to it "...the Stronghold, is very important because of our own life. We can't really die in battle. You see the worm that had just exited from that tent?" Courage watched a guy waving at him, "he fell in the last battle at your house. We simply regenerate ourselves at the hospital of our bases... When a team loses too much battles, it can happen that the next battle takes place as a siege of the loser team's base. It can end with fail for the attackers, but if they manage to destroy the Stronghold, the losers... _die_. Definitively."

Courage was bewildered. Those worms had a strange life... and he was sad for their situation. He would have never desired to live a life where you had to kill your own brothers, with or without your approval. Courage tried to find some type of emotion on Douglas' face. Perhaps he wasn't happy, but he wasn't sad either.

"I think that inside the Stronghold there is the essence of our life... or something very important for it," said Mc Hood.

"Seriously, Mc Hood, you should join a philosophy university between every match," commented Douglas. Mc Hood watched him oddly.

"Douglas!" called Agent Dennis from somewhere, "How about stopping to play the tourist guide and going here to help us?"

"I'm coming!" answered Douglas. He then told Courage, "Tomorrow will be an important day for you as well... I think you can participate or at least listen to our conversation about the strategy," he smiled at him, trying to be friendly.

Courage accepted the offer: he wanted to know more about these guys and their combat style. He followed Mc Hood and Douglas through the base until reaching a tent were Boggy Pete, Agent Dennis and some others invertebrates were discussing. Mc Hood and Douglas joined the group as Courage sat on the ground listening to them.

At one point, Courage was deep in his thought, quietly stopping to listen to the discussion. There was some hope about the destiny of Muriel and Eustace, but... these worms had not won a battle since what time? It wasn't because Courage wasn't confident about them, but because he feared about the possibility of a defeat of the Destroyers. He tried to push away the thought of what the Bacabe could do to Muriel in that case, but it was useless. He knew that he couldn't simply wait for their fate in the base tomorrow: he had to do something.

He was called by his thoughts from the word 'sheep' uttered by Boggy Pete. They were now talking about animals, both about using them and defending from them. The weapons these worms used were obviously not normal. Courage couldn't help but smile at some of the names he heard.

Anyway, the dog still was still scared by the remembrance of the explosion of the cute animal in his house. Agent Dennis noticed his fright and couldn't help laughing.

"Do you fear sheep?" he asked. Courage nodded, as there was no need to lie. The worm laughed another time, "I know it's the first battle you see, and I don't like the image of a sheep incoming... but trust me. A sheep is _nothing_. Really, there are much worse tools of destruction in our hands, doggy!" Agent Dennis seemed to be proud, but Courage had to hold a scream at his words. He wished he was joking, but deep inside he knew he wasn't.

The night went on with the worms still arguing between themselves, and after about an hour Courage, who was very tired, fell asleep on the ground.


	4. Intrusion

"Hey, little dog, wake up!"

Courage awoke in the sunrise. For a moment he acted like it was a day like others, but after seeing Mc Hood's figure in front of him, he remembered all the events of the previous day.

"We are preparing to leave for the battle in the mountains," said Mc Hood, "I thought it was a good idea to wake you up. Wasn't it?"

Courage nodded. He followed Mc Hood and looked around while the other worms moved in the base, entered and exited tents, talked about what weapons they'd better take with them, moaned about getting up in the morning and so on. The dog thought about the upcoming clash, and despite his attempts to not do so, he also thought of Muriel. Courage shuddered at the thought, but a moment later he had no more fright. He knew what had to be done.

He moved in the crowd of annelids until he reached an angry Douglas who was arguing with Agent Dennis: "I'm not going to listen one more minute to..." he was saying when Courage touched him from behind. Douglas was a bit surprised... and annoyed. "What do you want now?" he said bluntly.

"I'm going after them," said Courage. Suddenly, everything fell silent. Every worm in the crowd stopped and stared at Courage. Agent Dennis was open mouthed.

"Huh?" asked Douglas. He couldn't believe what he had heard.

"I'm going after them, that's what I said," answered Courage, "I cannot just wait here for my owners fate, Douglas. While you are in battle, I will try to enter the Bacabe's base and free Muriel and Eustace, hoping that most of them will be busy with you."

Mc Hood emerged from the crowd. He was bewildered by Courage's determination, but he couldn't help but say, "Are you mad?".

"I certainly know you and your combat style better now," replied Courage. He was beginning to lose control of himself with all the gazes at him. "But I repeat. I _won't_ wait there without doing anything!"

At last, also Boggy Pete appeared in the group. The worm, who was holding an ear of wheat in his mouth, watched the pink dog intensely. In the end, he said "For a little dog as you, you appear to be very brave, even braver than some of us."

The worms quietly began to return to their business, whispering about the last event. Douglas was still in front of Courage. "Well, it seems that Boggy Pete has a point, Courage," he said, "we are not going to stop you, if that's what you worry about." The worm patted the dog with his hand, then he resumed to argue with Agent Dennis.

Preparations continued in the early morning, and in an half hour right outside the base there was a group of twelve worms, ready to roll out. The four worms that Courage knew most were in the squad. Only a few guards were left on the towers of the base.

Courage was with them, ready to start his own walk towards the Bacabe's fort. Before leaving them, a last thought came to his mind.

"You know, I have searched information about you before in my computer," he said to Douglas, "but I didn't find out much, except for the fact that no one had seen worms like you for five years. Why did you appear suddenly in Nowhere?"

"Courage, the answer is the same as before," said Douglas, "we were told to do so. Probably all the squads that are fighting in this state or even the world were told to battle in places unknown by most people for five years, but I'm not sure."

Courage was not satisfied. He still couldn't understand why they had to fight or at least _why_ they were ordered to fight. However, this fact wasn't his main worry now.

"Are you completely sure to go, little dog?" questioned Mc Hood. "I mean, there're going to be surely less worms in their base, but the Bacabe are still in good number thanks to their recent victories. You don't have to do that."

"I _have_ to do that," answered Courage. Without losing any more minutes, he said goodbye to the group and walked away towards the ruins of his house.

When the pink dog was enough far, Agent Dennis commented, "That is a really stupid dog..."

"Perhaps it's one of the few times I agree with you, Dennis," said Douglas, "but I think that his name wasn't chosen randomly..."

"Whatever...shall we go now?" muttered Boggy Pete. The group started to crawl and headed for the mountains.

* * *

Courage walked in the Kansas desert for some minutes until he reached the Bagge's farmhouse, or what was left of it. He watched the ruins for some seconds, then he continued to walk and moved on.

After ten minutes that seemed to be the longest of his life, Courage finally got sight of something in the horizon. He changed his approach to a stealthier one and continued to move towards the black spot. Soon he recognized some buildings, and in two minutes he could see the worms crawling on the towers. He had reached the base were Muriel was probably being kept.

Until now Courage seemed to be determined and calm, but now the first signs of fright were visible in him. There were lots of worms guarding the base, at least five times more than the ones in the Destroyers' base. As battle rule, Courage knew that teams had to battle in equal number. He remembered of Mc Hood's warn and decided to forget about it. He had to try.

Before leaving the friends' base, Courage had made a visit to the armoury. He had talked with the manager, a worm named Freeman, the same who was talking with Agent Dennis the day before. He wore a pair of glasses and always brought a crowbar with himself for no apparent reason. Courage had managed to gain his sympathy and to receive some weapons which were unused by the team. However, he wasn't really counting on them. He had few weapons with low ammo, and he didn't know how to use them correctly. In addition, every one of the guards on the top of those buildings was a trained soldier and had a complete arsenal of destruction, not to mention the defensive turrets they owned.

After thinking for a minute, he had an idea. The pink dog started to dig with his paws in the dirt until he dug an enough deep tunnel. Then, he started to dig in the direction of the buildings.

Courage managed to hear some of the guards' voices from above. When he thought he was inside the external perimeter, he dug vertically until he reached the surface.

He waited for some seconds but no one seemed to notice the hole. Courage raised his head and watched outside.

He was now within the fort. Luckily, most of the guards weren't watching the inside. Some other green-helmeted worms were instead talking with each other, too distracted to notice the intruder.

Courage exited from his tunnel and looked around the area, trying to find something interesting. He did when he saw three guards on the top of a square of four towers. The walls seemed to function as a cage, and Courage could see the worms watching nervously the centre of the square. He wondered if it was the place where Muriel was being kept. There was only one way to find out.

The dog returned into the tunnel and dug towards the 'thought-to-be prison'. He stopped when he heard voices coming from the surface.

"This stinks..." said a unknown voice, "what's going on in Fab's mind? Leaving me to guard these two senior citizen here?"

Courage gave a sigh of relief. The worm was certainly talking about Muriel and Eustace.

"Stay calm, Hippo..." said another voice, "you should be thankful you haven't been involved in another of those dangerous fights."

"Acting like a coward forever. Log98, is that your..." Hippo couldn't finish his speech.

"HEY!" shouted someone far away. From his underground location, Courage couldn't hear well, but he managed to catch some words: "...strange thing... ...look there... ...near the castle... ...hole..."

Courage shuddered in fright. They found his previous hole.

"What? Are you sure, Cab?" shouted Log98.

"Would you like to stop acting like an idiot?" said Hippo, "There is something wrong there. I'm going!"

"But Hippo, we were told not to..." Courage felt a little quake passing through the earth, "...ugh, forget about it, I'm coming too."

It took some seconds to Courage to realize he had an occasion. The dog immediately dug vertically as fast as he could, so fast that when he reached the surface he shot out of the ground and nearly hit Eustace, which was sitting above him.

When Muriel recognized her dog, she almost cried. "Courage!" she said, but Courage hushed her with a paw. This time Muriel understood his dog at once. Eustace gritted his teeth. "Humph," he mumbled, but at least he was enough intelligent to stay silent.

The plan was to have Muriel and Eustace enter the tunnel and then dig another tunnel to escape the base. Courage had to widen the hole in order to make Eustace and especially Muriel able to enter it. When he was done, he invited them to enter the new tunnel. Muriel entered first, then it was Eustace's turn. It seemed that they were going to make it.

The fact was that the lucky part of the day for Courage had finished.

Log98 was returning from the small group of worms who were still discussing about the hole in the ground. In his opinion they were losing time, so he had decided to return to his duty.

The worm crawled for some time without saying a word, silently. Then, he made a flip to jump higher and landed on the top of one of the four towers.

The events escalated quickly. He saw a pink dog instead of the prisoners. He saw a big hole in the ground. In half a second, he was already drawing his shotgun while the pink dog was screaming loudly.

After two seconds, he shot at Courage two times. The dog jumped away, scared, and the worm missed his target. Log98 shouted at his mates: "ALEEERT! THERE IS AN INTRUDER IN THE BASE!" and quickly recharged his rifle. But when he was done, the pink dog had already disappeared.

"Courage! Are you ok?" said Muriel inside the tunnel. But a moment later, there was an explosion just where the entrance was. Thinking fast, Courage realized that they would never make it digging a new tunnel. He knew there was only one thing left to do to save Muriel. After saying, "The things I do for love!" Courage zoomed away from the tunnel and exited through the new, big hole.

"Courage! Where are you going?" called Muriel, but another explosion made her and Eustace scream in terror. The two of them ran into the tunnel as fast as they could, digging to make enough space to pass through.

Courage's plan was working. Some worms which were already starting to shoot the ground with their explosives changed target and aimed at Courage.

The pink dog ran, dodged, jumped, screamed and escaped in all directions. Rounds, grenades, rockets, everything was coming from everywhere. They really wanted to annihilate him. "TEAR THE SKIN OFFA OF THAT DOG!" shouted Hippo, who was the most angered one.

When a mine hidden underground blew up three meters away from him, Courage decided to take cover behind a small tower. He recovered for some seconds, when he heard something weird landing on the other side of the tower. Courage looked behind and saw a Mexican sitting just in front of him. This was too much for Courage, who remained bewildered at this sight. The Mexican wore a enormous sombrero. In fact he looked more like a ball rather than a man...

Courage realized what was going to happen too late. He ran away when the Mexican emitted some type of short Mexican music and then he exploded. Flames appeared from the bomb and reached Courage's tail. The poor dog ran for some seconds screaming before he could put out the 'fire'.

Then, another explosion came from his previous location. The dog realized that the tower he was hidden behind before had been destroyed by the Mexican's explosion.

"What the heck are you doing, Cab?!" shouted a furious Hippo, "You were said to destroy the darn dog, not the tower!"

Courage was just behind the external perimeter of the base. He could try to escape, but he didn't know whether it was a good idea to do so, pursed by those warriors. Instead, he needed some type of distraction.

Another idea came to his mind. The walls which were connecting the destroyed tower with the two near buildings were collapsing. Courage thought about the walls, which were likely a link of sorts between the various buildings, then he thought about Douglas talking about the importance of the Stronghold, then he noticed that there was no other tower connecting the core of the base to the perimeter apart from another tower he could see. He wasn't sure it was the only one, but it was his only hope.

Courage shrieked as he saw a gas canister landing in front of him. He avoided the poisonous gas the canister released, then he ran away, still being pursued by Hippo, Log98 and some other guards. Even though they were crawling, they were still fast enough to not lose him.

He headed for the tower. If he was able to destroy it, the destruction of the entire perimeter would give him some time to escape the mess.

"Hey dog!" called Hippo from behind, "I'm sick of this, so here's a surprise for you!"

Every other worm stopped to fire at Courage. The dog continued to run but turned his head to see what was Hippo doing. He shrieked when he saw that the worm had thrown a sheep.

But soon Courage realized something surprising. The sheep wasn't thrown against him, but in another direction. The sheep didn't care of him, too, and simply continued to hop following its path. Courage was so surprised that he stooped to move.

His surprise turned into terror when he saw the unthinkable: the sheep made a last jump, then a red cape appeared on its back and it started to fly! The Super Sheep rotated its direction and pointed directly at Courage.

It was impossible to escape. The sheep was flying too fast and after some seconds would have exploded on him. "What do I do? What do I do?" said Courage. There was nothing he could do, of course, but he was too scared to realize it.

...At least there wasn't until he saw something on the ground. Even in the dry earth of the Kansas desert, a small green wild plant had managed to grow. Courage tried the only thing he could try to do.

He tore the plant from the earth and kept it in front of him with his paws. Then he waited with closed eyes for the inevitable.

After twenty seconds, he realized he was still alive. Courage opened his eyes and nearly screamed in surprise.

The Super Sheep was hovering in front of him. On his face Courage could see there was hunger. In fact the sheep was watching the plant he was keeping in his paws.

"You have to be kidding me..." said Hippo. Every one of the Bacabe was too astonished to even think to do something.

"Do you want this plant?" asked Courage. The Super Sheep moved nervously around him, still watching the plant. Courage feared about the fact that it could explode at any time, so he threw away the plant, directly on the tower which was the last connection of the perimeter with the core.

The Super Sheep watched Courage over enjoyed, as to say 'Thank you!'. Then it zoomed away towards the plant. With a last, loud "Baa!" the sheep reached the tower. Then, it detonated.

The tower was destroyed just like the previous one in the blink of an eye. Afterwards, all the buildings of the perimeter started to explode. The number of explosion was so big that dust began to form in the area. The guards moved away from the mess and took cover in the core of the fort.

Courage waited some seconds, then he ran into the dust. He soon exited the cloud and continued to run in the desert, towards his house.

He'd done it! He had saved Muriel even this time. Courage stopped for a minute to recover his breath. He was happy because he was sure that Muriel and Eustace had followed his initial tunnel to escape. He still had to go home and make sure they were okay.

Courage was going to begin walking home when he heard a loud, echoing noise coming from far away. He watched towards the direction it supposedly came from. He saw the mountains of Nowhere, then he realized that a big cloud was forming in front of them. The cloud became bigger and bigger, more like a mushroom. Just like the mushroom cloud he had seen the previous day.

"Oh, no..." thought Courage, shuddering while he watched the cloud continuing to grow up.


	5. Sudden Death

"There it is..." said Courage when he recognized the ruins of his house.

He had walked for about ten minutes, looking at his back every half minute or so. No worms had pursued him, so he reached the farmhouse without any bothers.

When he became able to see two people near the house, Courage began to run as fast as he could, though he was tired by his previous escape.

"Courage!" shouted Muriel when he saw him. Courage hopped on her chest, joyful.

In the meantime, Eustace wasn't giving attention to them, but instead was watching the house. "Darn moths..." he grumbled.

For Courage it was like the nightmare had come to an end. Yes, the house was still destroyed, and the area was still patterned with explosion craters, but he had both Muriel and Eustace saved from the worms' fury.

He was beginning to feel relaxed when he noticed something in the horizon. He touched Muriel, who let him away from her hug. The dog tried to focus on the black points that were starting to appear far away.

Courage shuddered in fright. "Well, they can be Douglas' mates coming from their last victory, can't they?" he said to himself. He knew too well he was wrong. Soon, green helmets became visible to his eyes.

Courage screamed in fear. His first thought was to put Muriel in a safe place. He abruptly picked her up and zoomed into the half destroyed house. There was a path in the ruins that led to the basements' door. Courage followed the path and pushed Muriel into the basement. "What's going on, Courage?" she asked, surprised, but Courage had already gone away.

Eustace was wondering why that stupid dog had brought Muriel inside when the green helmets became visible for him, too. He decided it was a good idea to follow the dog wherever he was going to.

Courage saw him coming in the basement, but passed away without saying anything. He was too concentrated on the upcoming fight.

 _You have to stay calm,_ he thought, _You can do it!_ He immediately dug in the earth in front of the ruined farmhouse and built in no time a decent trench. He owned some mines, so he tried to place a good number of them. Eventually he had to stop and hid in the trench, controlling the enemies' moves.

The Bacabe had won the battle in the mountains. When the other part of the team had found out what'd happened in the base thanks to a worm sent by the guards, they spent only a few minutes to return the fort and prepare themselves to pursue Courage with the purpose to take their revenge. They were extremely fast.

By now, fifteen worms were coming towards the remains of the Bagges' farmhouse. Fab was leading the group: even though he had always behaved in an emotionless manner, Courage could see from his hiding place that there was anger in his face.

"Where's that dog?" shouted the annoyed voice of Hippo, "I want to annihilate him myself!"

Courage saw them approaching fast. When they were fifty meters far, he decided to do the first move. He withdrew a weapon: a cluster grenade.

From the worms perspective, a cluster grenade appeared from the ground in front of them. However, the bomb was too slow and it was easy for them to avoid the explosion. When the grenade detonated, it released some clusters, but they didn't harm anyone.

After some seconds from the explosions, almost all the Bacabe started to laugh hysterically. Courage didn't expect that reaction from them.

"Is that a joke, little doggy?" managed to say Def between the laughs. "Did you really think that you could stop us with _cluster bombs_?"

Probably it was not a good idea to take the cluster bombs instead of the ordinary grenades. In any case, Courage had got some other weapons left. He prepared a new tool, one called by Freeman 'missile launcher'. "Where's it..." he thought while searching for something on the launcher. He saw a tiny little screen on the side of the weapon.

He sat up and used the screen to target one of them, who appeared to be Cab. Before anyone of them could shoot at him, some of them were still laughing, Courage hid back in the trench. He still heard some shots and some rifle rounds hitting the terrain.

"Go get him, you idiots!" bellowed Hippo. Courage heard some of them crawling towards him. He aimed the missile launcher at the sky and fired.

The worms were startled to see the missile coming out from the trench. After three seconds, the missile turned on its engine and aimed at Cab. The worm said, "This isn't certainly the best day of my life, is it?" before being hit by the missile. Cab was thrown away by the blast, screaming some weird cries.

The worm landed on the ground head first. He quickly stood back up and for a moment it seemed that he was unharmed. Then, he waved at his teammates before detonating in another explosion. Where the explosion took place, a tombstone appeared.

This was too much for the Bacabe. They began to bomb Courage with grenades, bazooka rockets and shotguns shots. The trench collapsed in little time, and Courage was forced to retreat and enter the half-destroyed house. He hid behind the main door and withdrew his last weapon: a shotgun. He began to shoot at the worms, but he didn't aim properly in order to remain safe behind the door frame. Although he didn't hit anyone of the worms, he managed to slow them down.

Suddenly, one of the mines placed by Courage blew up under one of the enemies. The worm was taken aback and flied away just like Cab.

"You are smarter than I thought... Courage!" said Fab. He appeared to know his name as well. "But that is not enough to stop us..." With those words, Courage heard the engines of a plane getting louder, then a missile scored a direct hit at his cover. Def had called an air strike. He shrieked and escaped just before another part of the house collapsed above him. The plane that had released the missiles left the area in a few seconds.

The pink dog controlled his ammo: the rifle was out. He had also finished the mines, so he was completely powerless now. "This isn't going to end well..." he thought. He rushed away through the path in the ruins and reached the basement where Muriel and Eustace were waiting. Both of them were frightened.

"Courage! Are you ok?" asked Muriel. Courage ran to her and hugged her to find some comfort. From the basement, he was still able to listen to the worms' shouts.

"You stinky dog, where're you? Come here and FIGHT ME, COWARD!" shouted Hippo. No one answered from the house. "It's that amusing to not answer?! Well, we'll see how it'll be entertaining for you THIS!" The furious worm withdrew a new weapon.

Courage couldn't see Hippo, but he could hear a new sound. It was rather strange...

Hippo was holding in his hand a Holy Hand Grenade. A light coming from somewhere above was lighting him. Some stars were moving around the weapon and his owner, and a golden halo was hovering over his head.

"Are you crazy?" said Log98, "It'd be the third one in two days!"

"Shut up, Log!" replied Hippo, "I'm not going to let that darn dog live one more minute of life!"

Courage screamed and hid himself behind Muriel's back. "Calm down, Courage," said Muriel trying to smile, "everything is going to be okay..."

"I'm with Hippo!" said Andry, "That dog has gone beyond the limit."

After some seconds, the voice of Fab ended the discussion: "Let's finish this. Team, move back!"

Courage thought it was the end.

Eustace instead was annoyed by the situation. He did some steps in the basement. "Stupid worms! Where's my mallet?" he said. Realizing the mallet was lost somewhere in the debris, he lost control of himself and kicked a wooden box. This had the only effect to injure his right foot: "ARGH!" he shouted while jumping on the good foot, "From where the heck is this darn box coming from?!"

Courage watched curiously the accused 'box'. He was shocked. Eustace had just kicked an ammo crate. He knew them by a description he had listened to the previous night. The crate was light brown and, just as the tombstones, looked like it was dancing. Inside, a unknown weapon was waiting. Courage left his hiding place and moved towards the crate. In that moment _how_ the crate had appeared in his house had no importance. The dog touched the crate: suddenly the box disappeared, only some little lights where it used to be.

Hippo was confident: the dog was going to be annihilated along with his house and his owners. He was going to throw the Holy Hand Grenade when he heard something. After years of battles, he couldn't mistake for anything else the sound of a crate being picked up.

"What the...?" he said. Then, a loud bray was emitted in the area. It stunned the worms, and some of them screamed in fright.

Hippo managed to raise his head. He saw something coming towards him from above. "Oh. Dang it..." he said before being smashed.

A huge, Concrete Donkey had been released on the battlefield. After smashing Hippo, the enormous statue started to bounce on the place, digging a big hole on the ground. Along with Hippo, some other worms who were near him had been thrown away by the blasts of the Concrete Donkey's bounces. Every time it bounced, the statue emitted a bray.

But it was not finished. When the Concrete Donkey disappeared into the ground, Fab, who was unharmed by the attack, noticed something moving in the air. The Holy Hand Grenade previously held by Hippo had been thrown away by the first blast. The grenade landed and bounced a few times before stopping right in front of him.

Some other worms, including Andry and Def, who were near Fab, tried to crawl away, screaming in terror. Fab, on the other hand, did not move. He didn't scream either. He knew it was too late.

"Humph. _Stupid dog._ You've won this time," said Fab while watching the Holy Hand Grenade.

" _HALLELUJAH!"_

"What was that?" said Muriel. Then, the loudest noise even heard by mankind crushed Courage's, Muriel's and Eustace's ears. A terrible quake went through the ground and made the dog and his owners fall on the floor. The walls of the basement cracked and squeaked, near to collapse.

As sudden as it had arrived, the quake passed away. Courage spent the next two minutes to calm himself down and regain his breath after his last scream.

He was still alive, and so were Eustace and Muriel, even though they were both a bit stunned. That weapon he had found in the crate saved him. He had at first believed it was a simple air strike, but he thought the _thing_ which stopped the worms was good as well.

After some minutes, the three of them decided to exit the basement. An hole was the only thing left to link the basement with the outside.

Just in the area where the worms were standing, there was one of the biggest craters Courage had ever seen. It was huge, and while its edges didn't reach the Bagges' farmhouse, the bulding had literally disappeared and in its placed there were only a few wooden planks of what used to be the floor left. Inside the crater, not right in the centre, there was a second, deep hole. Inside it was pitch black.

On the other side of the crater there were tombstones everywhere. There were also three worms still standing. Courage feared that these last worms wouldn't give up, but he was wrong.

Log98 stared at the pink dog on the other side of the HHG's explosion crater. He wasn't angry. On his face, instead, there was respect.

"That dog is really a die hard..." said Log98, "...I doubt he will ever give in. Hey, doggy!" he shouted, "It appears you're even tougher than we expected. _You won._ We aren't chasing you anymore!"

With that, he turned and crawled away, followed by his two remaining mates.

Courage watched Log98 going away and disappearing in the distance.

"Courage! You did it!" said Muriel. Courage jumped on her and hugged her. At last, the nightmare had _really_ finished.

"Hey, who're them?" demanded Eustace. "Huh?" said Courage. What was going on now? He sighed in relief when he recognized the newcomers. A squad of six Destroyers approached them and eventually joined the group.

Courage explained to them what happened, as they were eager to know what had caused all the mess in the zone.

"So..." began Agent Dennis, "...you are telling us that you have faced almost the entire Bacabe team, you have resisted for some time before retreating, you found some air strike that brayed like a donkey in an ammo crate in your basement and then another explosion made this huge crater?" Courage nodded. "Well, this is not the best period of time for telling fantasy tales, dog!"

"Agent Dennis, even though it's hard to believe that, I don't think that there is any other good reason for _this,_ " said Boggy Pete while pointing at the enormous crater.

Douglas hushed them with a gesture and turned to the pink dog. "Courage, I think we have to thank you." Courage scratched his head. "Mmmh?" he mumbled, not understanding him.

"Well, Courage, with our last defeat, the Bacabe had won enough times to start the attacks at our base. It would have been quite dangerous, but your visit at their fort as well as _that_..." and he pointed at the crater, "...have restored an equilibrium. Thanks to your actions, we aren't threatened anymore."

"Did I really do that?" asked Courage, bewildered. Douglas nodded. All the other worms in the squad patted him and congratulated him. "Good dog!" "Not bad!" "Cluster bombs? Are you serious?" were some of the sentences Courage was told. "I think that while you did good, Courage, you definitely had luck by your side," said Douglas. "I mean, a crate spawned in the middle of nowhere is uncommon..." Agent Dennis watched him oddly for his bad joke, "...but when that crate contains a legendary weapon such as a Concrete Donkey... I'd have said 'impossible' before today."

Courage only smiled at Douglas. Luck or not luck, he was glad he had had the chance to put an end to the clash, even if it were temporary.

Muriel was watching Courage proudly. Eustace instead wasn't happy at all. He couldn't bear the sight of these annelids. He muttered, "Where's my mallet when I need it..."

Suddenly, all the worms trembled. It only lasted a second, but Courage and the Bagges noticed it. The six Destroyers' members exchanged looks between themselves.

"Last minute changes, doggy," informed Mc Hood, "It appears that we're going to move away to another battlefield. No more battles bothering you, I think."

"Courage, it seems we have to say goodbye to each other," said Douglas. Courage was sad: while they still scared him a bit, but he had just began to consider them as friends.

His sadness was indeed visible. "Don't worry, dude," said Agent Dennis, "we won't forget you easily after all you've done... Also, who knows if we'll be able to meet again? Not in the middle of a battle, of course!" he laughed, but he stopped when he saw he was the only one laughing.

"I doubt it for the second part..." said Boggy Pete seriously, "...but for the first one, I have to agree."

Mc Hood approached Courage and revealed something he was hiding behind his back. It was at first sight a simple... bunch of bananas. "Here's a present we prepared for you, doggy," said Mc Hood. The pink dog was a bit surprised by this present, but then Mc Hood whispered something into his ear. Courage held a shout. "With the advice of Freeman, who also asked to say goodbye to you for him," said Agent Dennis with a smile.

Courage smiled. These worms were weird, but they were friendly and thankful.

In the end, the six worms had to leave. Courage waved at them, and the worms answered his wave. "Goodbye!" said Muriel politely. "Yes, yes, bye, whatever you want, just go 'way," muttered Eustace.

While they were leaving, Courage realized that none of them had complained about the sudden change. They were still happy about the last events, even though they shouldn't. _They're supposed to be sad or annoyed... More battles, fights and who knows what they're going to face. Why they're not? Aren't they going to face another team, just like the Bacabe or even tougher?_ he thought.

He understood only one thing: those worms perhaps lived a terrible and senseless life, but they were proud of it. Soldiers' blood was the one flowing in their body, that was for sure.

"You thanked them for their present, didn't you?" asked Muriel. Courage nodded, a happy look finally visible on his face.

"You stupid dog!" shouted Eustace. Both Courage and Muriel were surprised by his outburst. "They could have given you some type of powerful weapon capable of everything, including making us richer, and you accepted that BUNCH OF BANANAS?!"

"Now, Eustace!" scolded Muriel, "We all had a tough day. A cup of tea is all we need by now." Eventually she managed to calm him down even without the cup of tea.

"Well, I think that now we have to call an architect. Right?" asked Muriel.

While her and Eustace discussed about _how_ to call the architect, Courage relaxed himself. He was glad he had saved Muriel from one of the strangest events that had ever happened in Nowhere.

_**THE END** _

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this story. I hope it managed to entertain you despite its flaws and its age, since it's one of the first fanfictions I've written. If you're a Worms fan, I'd like to state what I used as reference while writing the fanfiction. Let's start with the characters.
> 
> The Bacabe team is an original team based on the team I've always used in almost every Worms game I've ever played. The name of the team and the various Worms are the same I use to this day, and there's no particular reason behind their choice: I was young, as if, very young when I created the team the first time, so no wonder they seem to be all confusing and such. Even so they stuck with me and I couldn't help reusing them in this story.
> 
> The Destroyers team on the other hand is a team with more than one reference to the games. For starters, 'Destroyers' is the name of a pre-made team in Worms: Open Warfare 2. Douglas and Agent Dennis are, if I remember correctly, either names common in random name generator or names of worms in pre-made teams/quick matches teams in Worms 3D. Agent Dennis is also the main character in one of the campaign missions of Worms Armageddon. Boggy Pete is based on another campaign character, once again in Worms 3D, while Mc Hood is the name of a member of the Scots team, a pre-made squad from Worms 4: Mayhem. As you've probably guessed, Freeman is not a reference to a Worms game.
> 
> I'll let you guess from what games the weapons I chose come from. In any case, the appearance and role of the bases of the teams is obviously inspired by Worms Forts: Under Siege. The absence of water from the story is wanted, since this is all set in Nowhere and Courage, to put it simply, lives in a desert.


End file.
